College of Agricultural Sciences

Synergistic Activities

Talbott has 35 years of experience dealing with issues and innovations surrounding natural resource management, research, and policy. Talbott has national and state legislative experience working with Congress and state elected officials to develop policy proposals to support expanding the nation’s energy portfolio while promoting environmental stewardship and rural economic development. He currently serves on the advisory board for the South Dakota Oilseeds Research Initiative to develop economical approaches to the production of oilseed crops for conversion to aviation fuels. Talbott was selected as a member of the Peer Review Committee for the 2012 Biomass Research Development Initiative for USDA. He also works closely with  industry consortiums exploring new crops and conversion processes to produce transportation fuels and renewable substitutes for electricity production that are competitive with fossil fuels. Talbott played a key role in the development of the Kevin Dome project in north central Montana to determine the viability of storing anthropogenic produced carbon dioxide in naturally occurring carbon dioxide reservoirs. This project also had a significant soil carbon sequestration element that evaluated a host of tillage, cropping, and grazing practices to increase carbon sequestration and developed a number of “on the fly” monitoring, measurement, and verification processes for cropland, grazing land, and forests.